[HGabor]

Hi Craig, the situation is a bit complicated. Hungarian fighters flew mission over the southern slopes of the Mátra mountain in the Gyöngyös area. Unfortunately no exact time is known for their IL-2 claims. But in that region mainly the 4 and 12 GvShAD IL-2s operated. (90, 91, 92 & 187, 188, 190 GvShAP)

In the 5 VA, 12 GvShAD, the 187 GvShAP flew only 1 mission this day between 12:50-14:30 local in the Gyöngyös-W area with 12 IL-2m3: ('65'-Lozorenko, '68', '76', '66', '69', '74', '75', '70', '98', '92', '82', '91'), led by Gv.Capt. Lozorenko. They attacked truck columns on the roads, but did not report dogfight, or plane losses! Fighter escort was 4 La-5s of 5 VA, 279 IAD, 92 IAP. No fighter losses. (279 IAD La-5s protected IL-2 formations and recce. aircrafts of 7 and 12 GvShADs this day.)

5 VA, 12 GvShAD, 188 GvShAP, escorted by La-5s of 192 IAP -as previously discussed-, lost an IL-2, S/N: 10956 at Gyöngyös-W.

Also found, that division level doc. of 14 GvIAD mentions a 'new' La-5 loss with pilot: Gv.Ml.Lt. Yusupov on November 17, 1944. But: I have NOT found any such loss in the regiment combat diaries of 14 GvIAD, or in their mechanical reports, only Myakinin's 39212821 in 178 GvIAP! (No 'Yusupov' is known in the 14 GvIAD regiments either.) Perhaps it's just a typo.

Too bad, some planes, like Gaponov's Yak-9M went missing without any specific location. Only region is known. It is the hardest to match such losses. Anyways, we try, what we can...
Cheers,
Gabor